Putting Cardiff Metro Node in the Picture
Work is well underway on installing 21CN metro node equipment at the main Cardiff telephone exchange. There are similar scenes at Swansea and Newport in South Wales with these metro nodes being essential to support the first customers that will be switched on to 21CN in less than 100 days.
Metro nodes provide the IP routing, Ethernet switching, SDH switching and gateways to existing networks for the unified 21CN network for voice, data and video. When 21CN is complete, there will be approximately 100 metro nodes in the UK with Alcatel, Cisco and Siemens providing the technology. They will serve around 5,500 Multi Service Access Nodes installed across the UK over the next five years.
To prepare for installation of the new electronics, the work at the Cardiff site included room refurbishment, power and ventilation upgrades and enhancing security.
Gordon Smith, Head of 21CN Transition Plan and Build Enablement, in BT Wholesale’s Network Solutions said: “We have now reached the stage where building the new network is well underway ready for equipment testing to begin before the first customers are connected. This is part of the comprehensive 21CN trialling programme and BT expects to complete more than half a million tests by the end of the first phase of end user migration.
“We need to develop 90 sites to support the first phase of customer migration in Cardiff and the surrounding area. This work is now in full flow.”
Cardiff and the surrounding area was chosen for the first stage of 21CN implementation because it is typically representative of the UK market as well as BT Wholesale's customer base. People and businesses locally will be the first in the UK to enjoy phone calls, ISDN and broadband services over 21CN.
The first customer migrations will happen in late November this year. The electronics in local exchange sites has started being installed and it will be connected back to the metro nodes at Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. Around 350,000 customer lines in the area will be changed over to 21CN and this work is due to be complete by the summer 2007.